The Doors / London Fog 1966 box set

Historic early recordings unearthed

Rhino will issue London Fog 1966 in December, a new archival Doors box set that features unearthed audio recorded at the LA club of the same name.
All tracks are previously unreleased and not even known to exist until recently and marks the earliest recordings of the band, finding the quartet mixing blues covers with early versions of Doors originals (Strange Days and You Make Me Real).

This London Fog 1966 set contains a CD and a ten-inch vinyl record (made to look like a test pressing) and is presented in a lift-top box package designed to look like a vintage storage box. Doors engineer Bruce Botnick recently mastered the audio for this collection.

In addition to the music, this box comes with packed with replica memorabilia including a poster, the set list handwritten by John Densmore, a program for the Royce Hall UCLA student film screening, plus a London Fog coaster. Liner notes include thoughts from Nettie Peña, someone who was not only at the London Fog show, but actually captured the audio on a ¼” reel-to-reel recorder (borrowed from her father who was a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District). Five black and white 8″ x 10″ re-prints of Peña’s unpublished photos of the band taken on that evening are included in this collector’s set.

London Fog 1966 is a numbered, ‘limited edition’ of 18,000. This set is the first of many ‘special activities and releases’ coming to celebrate The Doors’ 50th anniversary in 2017. London Fog 1966 will be released on 9 December 2016.

I think this is exactly how such a historically important release from a seminal band like The Doors should be presented. Really looking forward to this set! And the prospect of getting more special releases next year is mouthwatering.

Easily one of the best bands we will ever hear. Period.
Very nice set! Been looking forward to this release for a couple of years!
Now if only they could release the Warehouse 1970 tape!
… and eventually the Isle of Wight 1970 show on blu-ray!
Still a few more releases on the agenda for Bright Midnight Records… including the remastered Matrix box set and the Stockholm ’68 shows… and Bakersfield ’70!

A nice release for the completists , I will add this to my list for santa ….. maths was never my strong suit but surely if this gig was may 1966 then shouldn’t 2016 and not 2017 be their 50th anniversary ?

Not the “earliest recordings of the band” because there are September 1965 demos. But the first live recordings, and the first with the classic lineup, I guess. That’s pretty fantastic. But what an uninteresting setlist – mainly just the blues they revisited on “Morrison Hotel” — and it is only 30 minutes long (hence the 10 inch vinyl), so it’s not going to rock your entire day. Apparently there were two reels to the original recording, but the second one has gone missing, and that’s a shame because it contained an embryonic “The End”. Still…if they ditched the gimmicky vinyl and all the fluff, this would be a purchase. As it is, you’re kidding.

I’m not sure that any of the collateral is worth more than an initial vaguely entertaining look and don’t understand at all the idea of faking a test pressing when these tracks were never originally submitted to Elektra — this tape existed prior to the band being signed and was never owned by their label. I know for a fact that the original packaging design concept for this set included the entire contents not only on CD plus reel-to-reel tape — the original creative director sourced one of two companies in the US that still produces them — the way it was stored for years in Nettie’s closet, plus a replica matchbook from the London Fog with Pamela’s (Jim’s ultimate main squeeze) home phone number hand written since this is the concert where Jim and Pam first met. Still ultimately irrelevant to the music? Maybe but unquestionably a whole lot cooler, that’s for damn sure.

Released as a CD this would have been an automatic buy, because it comes with vinyl and and as a consiquence overpriced not so much of an automatic buy.

It could have been amde a worthwhile set buy adding the 1965 demos that appeared in the box set a few years back, at least we would then get around 40 minutes of music. and have everything pre Elektra in one place.

Huge, Huge Morrison and the Doors fan,
Did not know of this and I am glad to have gotten the notice from Superdeluxeedition.com… thank you Paul. I have the bootleg that came out a few days ago. No matter how it sounds… it is a piece of history and any else that the box may contain will be a bonus and with only 18,000 units produced we have to preorder in advance. Let us hope that this release does see the light of day on December 9th. This Christmas will be a little extra special.